Queens doctor, Hank Chien, named new King of Kong, smashes video game's top score

Hank Chien, MD, is the world record Donkey Kong record holder. (Keivom/News)

A Queens plastic surgeon has been crowned the king of Donkey Kong.

Dr. Hank Chien, 35, racked up a score of 1,061,700 on the classic arcade video game, smashing the old record by 10,000 points. Chien's dazzling feat was confirmed by Twin Galaxies, the official score keeper of electronic games.

"People may ask for my autograph walking down the street, but I don't think it's going to change my life," Chien told the Daily News last night.

Chien set the world record during a 21/2-hour game he started late Feb. 26 and ended in the wee hours of Feb. 27 on his personal Donkey Kong machine at an East Side apartment he shares with his brother.

"That was the day of a huge snowstorm in the city," Chien said. "I actually took the day off from work and slept most of the day; so I was completely caught up on sleep."

In keeping with Twin Galaxies' stringent regulations, Chien videotaped the machine inside and out before and after the game, and completed a 39-point check list.

Twin Galaxies' board of referees reviewed his entry and let him know Friday that he had officially topped Donkey Kong champion Billy Mitchell's world record.

Chien, whose plastic surgery practice is based in Flushing, said he's only been playing Donkey Kong since last September, inspired by the 2007 documentary about the game "King of Kong."

"This film made me realize that there was a whole group of people that were playing the classics, the games from the '80s," said Chien.

Within weeks after playing his first game, he realized he was a natural at maneuvering a Super Mario-type character through a maze of ladders and barrels to rescue a damsel in distress from Donkey Kong.

"Donkey Kong requires reflexes, it requires strategy, it requires foresight planning and timing," Chien said. "It requires everything, which is the beauty of the game."